High Road takes one-two in Giro sprint
Photo: courtesy Wim Dingemanse
Photo: courtesy Wim Dingemanse
High Road dominated the sprint finish at the Giro d’Italia in Locarno on Wednesday with a perfect lead out from the team and a rare one-two finish by Andre Greipel and Mark Cavendish.
The 146km stage from Sondrio to Locarno was the last stage for the sprinters before the Giro d’Italia ends in Milan on Sunday and High Road made sure they won it.
It was team’s third stage victory in the 2008 Giro d’Italia after Cavendish won in Catanzaro on stage four and in Cittadella on stage 13.
The white High Road jerseys were prominent on the front of the peloton for much of the stage.
They chased down the attack by three riders and swept up last attacker Mikhail Ignatiev four kilometres from the finish.
In the centre of Locarno the riders each did a strong turn on the front before pulling off to let their team mates through in a perfect example of team work. Frantisek Rabon worked on the front and then strong time trialists Marco Pinotti and Adam Hansen took over before world pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins lead the peloton to the final kilometre. Tony Martin then made sure Greipel and Cavendish were safely round the two left hand corners.
Greipel lead out the sprint as Cavendish carefully watched Bennati. Greipel was very strong and accelerated all the way to the line as Cavendish sat up and began celebrating High Road’s double success.
Greipel had worked hard for Cavendish in the other Giro sprints and so it was a well-deserved payback for the 26 year-old from Rostock.
“I think Cavendish was happy that I won. I did a good job for him when he won and finishing first and second is great for the team,” Greipel said.
“I think High Road is the fastest lead out train here in the Giro, we’ve shown it many times during the race. Rabon is really good Pinotti and Hansen are both national time trial champions and Wiggins is world pursuit champion. Tony Martin is also one of the fastest and most talented young time trialists and then me and Cavendish are both fast sprinters.”
The high Road riders hugged each other and celebrated what was a special day for the team because Gerald Ciolek also won opening stage of the Bayern Rundfahrt race in Germany.
Mark Cavendish was genuinely happy that Greipel won the stage.
"First and second is unbelievable,” Cavendish said.
“It wasn't something we made up, we didn't decide it going into the sprint, but there were two of us in the last two hundred metres and Andre is really fast, so it was perfect.”
“I was just watching Bennati and if he'd started to sprint I'd have gone as well. I owed Andre this for the job he did the other day. He deserved to win.”
The Giro d’Italia heads back to Italy on Thursday for the 18th stage from Mendrisio in Switzerland to Varese.
The 147km stage starts with two laps of the circuit that will be used for the Mendrisio world road race championships in 2009, and ends with two laps of the of the circuit that will be used for this year’s world championships in Varese.
It will be an excellent opportunity for the High Road riders to check out the two circuits.
Misschien ook interessant:
